The National Union of Romanian Hauliers (UNTRR) welcomes the political agreement reached regarding the enlargement of the Schengen Area with Romania and Bulgaria's air and sea borders starting from March 2024, but calls on Romanian and European authorities to also establish a clear date for the enforcement of the Schengen visa-free rules for land borders as well, starting in 2024."Schengen accession is an important and much-awaited step by Romanian passengers and transport operators, which should have been achieved as early as in 2011, when the European institutions found that Romania meets all the technical requirements for admission. Given that all passenger data are at the disposal of air transport operators, the enlargement of the Schengen Area with Romania's air borders could have been accomplished a long time ago. There is obviously no justification of a technical nature for the delay, the reasons are political, the members of the EU club have chosen to punish Romania and Bulgaria and reduce their competitiveness all this time, curbing their development potential. Yet now, Romania's joining the Schengen with the land borders is an emergency for road freight carriers whose efficiency is currently severely penalized through the extremely long waiting times (about 30 - 36 hours daily between Romania and Bulgaria) and for coach operators, in order to avoid the significant administrative burden arising from the new obligations of verifying passenger data in the European EES and ETIAS travel registration and authorization systems starting from next year," UNTRR secretary general Radu Dinescu said, as cited in a release of the organization.According to a report conducted by UNTRR this year on the impact on road freight of Romania being kept out of Schengen, the industry incurred losses of 2.41 billion euros."We request the urgent setting of a definite date for Romania's Schengen entry with land borders too, and if there are certain special requirements, they should be clearly mentioned in order to have a precise reference regarding the accession calendar and the goals to be achieved. The criteria the other members of the EU club want Romania and Bulgaria to fulfill must not exceed the general framework and the technical requirements for admission," said Dinescu.UNTRR representatives point out that the road transport industry, which with 7.66 billion euros in 2022 is Romania's largest exporter of services, is the economic branch most affected by Romania being kept out of Schengen.
Romania is among 19 European Union member states asking the European Commission to allocate funding for the creation of migrant return centres to be located outside the EU, amid a broader tightening of the bloc’s migration policy, Agerpres reported. The request follows decisions taken by...
The minister of economy, Radu Miruţă, announced that the Agency for Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Enterprises' Performance (AMEPIP) fined him, as a natural person, for "wanting a clean and fair management at a state-owned company" - Avioane Craiova. The fine is apparently linked to comments made by minister Miruţă about the management teams appointed […]
The Chamber of Deputies, as a decision-making body, adopted the Law on Combating Antisemitism and Xenophobia on December 17, after the law was first referred to the Constitutional Court and then sent back to Parliament for re-examination by president Nicușor Dan, who indicated ambiguous formulations in the text that would excessively extend its scope, making […]
Greenvolt Group, through Greenvolt Power, a developer of wind, photovoltaic, and battery energy storage projects, announced that it has agreed to the sale of a 253 MW onshore wind project in Ialomița County to Engie Romania, a subsidiary of Engie Group. This agreement follows a series of successful asset-rotation operations announced by Greenvolt in 2025, […]
The Romanian Competition Council has fined Philip Morris Trading, Interbrands Orbico, and Mediaposte Hit Mail with fines totaling RON 135.2 million (EUR 26.6 million) for participating in anti-competitive agreements on the heated tobacco products market. The decision is enforceable. Following an investigation, the competition authority said it found that there were agreements between Philip Morris […]
The government approved on December 17 an emergency ordinance by which the Ministry of Finance allocates almost RON 2.5 billion (nearly EUR 500 million), intended for the payment of arrears of the Ministry of Development (MDLPA) and the continuation of public investments. This comes on top of RON 1.35 billion allocated to the Ministry of […]
